Tenantization of search result ranking

ABSTRACT

This disclosure describes methods and systems for searching documents in a multi-tenant hosting environment. According to embodiments, to conserve hardware resources, a plurality of documents associated with a plurality of tenants may be mapped to the same search index in the multi-tenant hosting environment. In order to search documents associated only with a single tenant in the multi-tenant hosting environment, a tenant identifier is prepended to every key stored in the search index that is associated with the plurality of documents of the single tenant. Moreover, where one document links to another document within the multi-tenant hosting environment, the link is stored in a web graph when a source tenant identifier matches a target tenant identifier for the link. According to embodiments, when conducting a search, the link is resolved only if the link is stored in the web graph.

The use of search engines to locate relevant documents within adatabase, enterprise intranet, or the Internet has become commonplace.At a very high level, most search engines function by performing threedistinct steps: identifying all documents that match the search criteria(the “candidate documents”); ranking the candidate documents based on apredicted relevance; and presenting the results to the user beginningwith the most relevant.

The quality of the relevance ranking function may be very important to auser's satisfaction with the search engine because the user is notexpected to, and in many cases cannot realistically, review the entireset of matching documents. In most cases, the user reviews only arelatively small number of those documents and so the most relevantcandidates within that small subset should be presented first for thesearch (or query) to be successful.

The quality of the relevance ranking function is dependent on twocharacteristics: the set of features on which the ranking is based; andthe specific algorithm applied to the features. The ranking features areattributes of the candidate documents that contribute to predictingrelevance of the document. Ranking features may depend on corpus-widestatistics, such as document frequency and average length of thedocument, as well as linking information between the documents in thecorpus (or, document collection). The ranking algorithm defines how theranking features are combined together to rank order the candidatedocuments. The ranking algorithm may also have parameters that may betrained to maximize an expected relevance measure of the search engine.

In some cases, in order to take advantage of the economies of scale,different entities (or tenants) may employ the same hosting environment.That is, different entities may employ a common computer software orhardware environment. Accordingly, searches done across all documents inthe shared hosting environment may include documents belonging tomultiple tenants of the hosting environment. It is with respect to thisgeneral environment that embodiments of the present application aredirected.

SUMMARY

This disclosure describes methods and systems for searching documents ina multi-tenant hosting environment. According to embodiments, toconserve hardware resources, a plurality of documents associated with aplurality of tenants may be mapped to the same search index in themulti-tenant hosting environment. In order to search documentsassociated only with a single tenant in the multi-tenant hostingenvironment, a tenant identifier is prepended to every key stored in thesearch index that is associated with the plurality of documents of thesingle tenant. Moreover, where one document links to another documentwithin the multi-tenant hosting environment, a web graph is provided inwhich a link is stored only if a target tenant identifier for the linkmatches a source tenant identifier for the link. According toembodiments, when conducting a search, the link is resolved only if thelink is stored in the web graph.

According to embodiments, a computer storage medium storingcomputer-executable instructions for implementing a method of indexing afirst document in a multi-tenant hosting environment is provided. Themethod comprises indexing a first property of a first document in asearch index. Indexing the first property comprises identifying a firstplurality of keys in the first property of the first document. Indexingthe first property further comprises prepending a first tenantidentifier to each key of the first plurality of keys to form a firstplurality of first tenant identifier-key combinations and storing thefirst plurality of first tenant identifier-key combinations in a searchindex. Indexing the first property further comprises mapping the firstproperty of the first document to each of the first plurality of firsttenant identifier-key combinations in the search index.

According to further embodiments, a computer system is provided forperforming a method of searching a plurality of documents associatedwith a tenant in a multi-tenant hosting environment. The methodcomprises receiving a search key from a tenant in a multi-tenant hostingenvironment, wherein the search key is prepended to a tenant identifierassociated with the tenant to form a tenant identifier-search keycombination. The method further comprises querying a search index for atenant identifier-key combination that corresponds with the tenantidentifier-search key combination and returning one or more documentsmapped to the corresponding tenant identifier-key combination, whereinthe one or more documents are associated with the tenant in amulti-tenant hosting environment.

According to further embodiments, a computer-implemented method isprovided for searching a plurality of documents associated with a tenantin a multi-tenant hosting environment. The computer-implemented methodcomprises receiving a search key from a tenant in a multi-tenant hostingenvironment, wherein the search key is prepended to a tenant identifierassociated with the tenant to form a tenant identifier-search keycombination. The method further comprises querying a search index for atenant identifier-key combination that corresponds with the tenantidentifier-search key combination and returning one or more documentsmapped to the corresponding tenant identifier-key combination, whereinthe one or more documents are associated with the tenant in amulti-tenant hosting environment.

These and various other features as well as advantages whichcharacterize the systems and methods described herein will be apparentfrom a reading of the following detailed description and a review of theassociated drawings. Additional features are set forth in thedescription that follows, and in part will be apparent from thedescription, or may be learned by practice of the technology. Thebenefits and features of the technology will be realized and attained bythe structure particularly pointed out in the written description andclaims herein as well as the appended drawings.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and areintended to provide further explanation for the appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an embodiment of a multi-tenant hostingenvironment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a suitablecomputer system for implementing one or more aspects of search resultranking.

FIGS. 3A and 3B are flow diagrams representing an embodiment of a methodfor indexing a first document associated with a first tenant and asecond document associated with a second tenant in a multi-tenanthosting environment.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram representing an embodiment of a method forcalculating and storing an average document length for each property(AVDL_(p)) associated with a tenant in a multi-tenant hostingenvironment.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram representing an embodiment of a method fortenantizing links in a web graph.

FIGS. 6A and 6B are flow diagrams representing an embodiment of a methodfor searching documents in a multi-tenant hosting environment.

FIGS. 7A and 7B are flow diagrams representing an embodiment of a methodfor resolving a link when searching documents in a multi-tenant hostingenvironment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

This detailed description is made with reference to the accompanyingdrawings, which form a part hereof, and which show, by way ofillustration, specific embodiments. These embodiments are described insufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice what istaught below, and it is to be understood that other embodiments may beutilized and that logical, mechanical, electrical, and other changes maybe made without departing from the spirit or scope of the subjectmatter. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to betaken in a limiting sense, and its scope is defined only by the appendedclaims.

This disclosure describes methods and systems for searching documents ina multi-tenant hosting environment. A multi-tenant hosting environmentallows different entities (e.g., tenants) to take advantage of theeconomies of scale by using a common software and hardware computingenvironment. According to an embodiment, a multi-tenant hostingenvironment may comprise an environment wherein common hardware orsoftware is operated under the control of one entity (i.e., host) onbehalf of one or more other entities (i.e., tenants). According tofurther embodiments, to conserve hardware resources, a plurality ofdocuments associated with a plurality of tenants may be mapped to thesame search index in the multi-tenant hosting environment. In order tosearch documents associated only with a single tenant in themulti-tenant hosting environment, a tenant identifier is prepended toevery key stored in the search index that is associated with theplurality of documents of the single tenant. Moreover, where onedocument links to another document within the multi-tenant hostingenvironment, a web graph is provided in which a source tenant identifierand a target tenant identifier are associated with the link. Inembodiments, when conducting a search, the link is resolved only if thesource tenant identifier matches the target tenant identifier for thelink.

More specifically, to facilitate searching documents within themulti-tenant hosting domain, each of the documents may be mapped to keys(K) in a search index, e.g., using an inverted index data structure. Forpurposes of this disclosure, a multi-tenant hosting environment maycomprise a search domain, which refers to all documents, collections ofdocuments, and the search index or other databases that are within thescope of a search engine. According to embodiments, more than one searchindex may be within the scope of the search engine, although it isbeneficial to map as many documents as possible to a common search indexin order to conserve hardware resources. For purposes of thisdisclosure, a key (K) refers to anything that is searchable within adocument, e.g., words, phrases, numbers, symbols, etc., and a documentrefers to any logical subset of data, e.g., textual, numerical,symbolic, or other data. Each document may further include a number ofproperties, e.g., body, title, headings, cells, table of contents,metadata, anchor text, etc. According to embodiments, each property of adocument may be mapped to keys within the search index.

Thereafter, documents may be searched based on one or more search keys(SK). Similar to keys, search keys refer to anything that is searchablewithin a document, e.g., words, phrases, numbers, symbols, etc. However,search keys dictate the documents to be retrieved in a search. Thus,upon receiving the search key “airplane,” a search engine may return alldocuments mapped to a key “airplane” in a search index. A search mayalso be limited in scope. For example, a user may be interested only indocuments that contain the one or more search keys in one or moredocument properties. Thus, for the search key “airplane,” a searchengine may identify only documents in the search domain for which one ormore properties, e.g., title property, body property, metadata property,etc., are mapped to the key “airplane” in the search index.

The initial set of documents (i.e., candidate documents) returned by thesearch engine may be quite large. Indeed, some of the candidatedocuments may be more relevant than others. As such, after identifyingthe candidate documents, the search engine may proceed to rank thecandidate documents by a predicted relevancy. For example, the searchengine may apply a ranking function, or algorithm, to one or morecharacteristics, or ranking features, of the candidate documents toobtain a score for each document. Ranking features may include staticfeatures, e.g., related to the type, date, or length of the document, ordynamic features, e.g., related to any TF/IDF features, or based on termfrequencies, tf, or document frequencies, n. Term frequency refers tothe number of times a term occurs in a document (or in a particularproperty of the document). Document frequency refers to the number ofdocuments that the term occurs in the entire collection. Typically, aranking function will promote documents with higher term frequency, butterms with higher document frequency (i.e., popular terms) will beweighted lower than the rare terms. As such, in a multi-tenant hostingenvironment, document frequency should be computed with respect to thepossible recall set of documents, i.e., a postings list of documentsassociated with a single key for a single tenant. The candidatedocuments are then ordered by their score in decreasing order ofpredicted relevance.

Upon ranking the candidate documents, the ranked documents are thendisplayed starting with the most relevant. Typically, the rankeddocuments are presented in relatively small groups, such as 10 or 20 ata time. As it is likely that a user may only review a small number ofthese groups, the most relevant documents are generally presented first.Furthermore, in a multi-tenant hosting environment, it is important thatthe most relevant documents to a particular tenant are presented first.

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an embodiment of a multi-tenant hostingenvironment.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the methodsdisclosed herein may be implemented in a multi-tenant hostingenvironment, e.g., offered with Microsoft® Office 365 cloud-computingpackages. A multi-tenant hosting environment may involve a first tenant,e.g., tenant 102, and a second tenant, e.g., tenant 104. Tenant 102 andtenant 104 may be persons, small businesses, non-profit organizations,corporations, or any other logical entity. Moreover, tenant 102 andtenant 104 may be competing entities, e.g., entities within the sameindustry, technology area, research or development area, retail space,etc. In order to take advantage of the economies of scale, tenants 102and 104 may further utilize a multi-tenant hosting environment, e.g.,hosting environment 106. Tenants 102 and 104 may access the hostingenvironment 106 via a network 108, e.g., an intranet, an extranet, acloud computing network, etc. For example, tenant 102 may access thehosting environment via a user interface 110 that it connected tonetwork 108 and tenant 104 may access the hosting environment via a userinterface 112 that it connected to network 108.

A multi-tenant hosting environment allows different entities (e.g.,tenants 102 and 104) to take advantage of the economies of scale byusing a common software and hardware computing environment. That is, thedifferent entities may use common hardware, e.g., memory and processors,and common software, e.g., computer-readable instructions or datastructures, for storing and accessing data. For example, documentcollections from different entities may be stored within themulti-tenant hosting environment. For purposes of this disclosure, a“collection of documents” or a “document collection” refers to a groupof documents associated with a single entity or tenant within amulti-tenant hosting environment. For example, first document collection114 may be stored in database 116 on the hosting environment 106 andsecond document collection 118 may be stored in database 120 on thehosting environment 106 (shown). According to alternative embodiments,first document collection 114 and second document collection 118 may bestored in the same database on the hosting environment 106 (not shown).According to alternative embodiments, first document collection 114 maybe stored in a database associated with tenant 102 and second documentcollection 118 may be stored in a database associated with tenant 104(not shown). In this case, first document collection 114 and seconddocument collection 118 may be accessible to the hosting environment 106for searching.

According to further embodiments, other data and information regardingtenants, e.g., tenants 102 and 104, may be stored in dictionaries, webgraphs, or other suitable data stores on the hosting environment 106.For example, data and information regarding tenants, e.g., tenants 102and 104, may be stored in one or more common databases, e.g.,database(s) 126 (shown). Alternatively, data and information regardingtenants, e.g., tenants 102 and 104, may be stored in dedicated databasesfor each tenant (not shown). According to some embodiments, a rankingfunction such as the BM25F ranking function may be used to rankdocuments on a degree of textual match with a query. In this case, otherdata and information (e.g., N, AVDL_(p), etc.) regarding first tenant102 may be stored in a dedicated dictionary (e.g., first dictionary 128)or may be stored in a common dictionary with data and informationregarding other tenants (not shown). According to some embodiments,other data and information (e.g., N, AVDL_(p), etc.) regarding secondtenant 104 may be stored in a dedicated dictionary (e.g., seconddictionary 130) or may be stored in a common dictionary with data andinformation regarding other tenants (not shown). According toembodiments, dedicated dictionaries (e.g., first dictionary 128 andsecond dictionary 130) may be stored in one or more common databases(e.g., database(s) 126) (shown) or may be stored in dedicated databasesfor each tenant (not shown).

According to some embodiments, cross-document linking informationregarding documents associated with the first tenant 102 and the secondtenant 104 may be stored in a common web graph, e.g., web graph 132(shown). According to other embodiments, cross-document linkinginformation regarding documents associated with the first tenant 102 maybe stored in a dedicated web graph (not shown). Similarly, according toembodiments, cross-document linking information regarding documentsassociated with the second tenant 104 may be stored in a dedicated webgraph (not shown). According to embodiments, dedicated or common webgraphs may be stored in one or more common databases (e.g., database(s)126) (shown), or may be stored in dedicated databases for each tenant(not shown). According to embodiments, in order to conserve hardwareresources, any common or dedicated database may be stored in anysuitable dedicated memory, shared memory, partitioned memory, orotherwise, on the hosting environment 106.

Moreover, in a multi-tenant hosting environment, document collectionsfrom different entities may be mapped to a common search index. Forexample, first document collection 114 and second document collection118 may both be mapped to search index 122. According to embodiments,search index 122 may be stored in one or more databases with other dataand information associated with the multi-tenant hosting environment,e.g., database(s) 126 (shown). Alternatively, search index 122 may bestored in a dedicated database comprising only search index 122 (notshown). According to embodiments, a plurality of document collectionsmay be keyed to the same search index in order for tenants to takeadvantage of the economies of scale. That is, hardware resources may beconserved by keying the plurality of document collections to the samesearch index (e.g., a common search index) rather than keying eachdocument collection to a separate search index (e.g., a dedicated searchindex). As a result of the conservation of hardware resources, tenantsmay be able to enjoy substantial monetary savings, among other benefits.

Furthermore, a common search engine within a multi-tenant hostingenvironment may be used to query a plurality of document collectionsfrom different entities. For example, search engine 124 within thehosting environment 106 may use the search index 122 to query the firstdocument collection 114 and the second document collection 118. However,the search engine may only return results from one of the first documentcollection 114 or the second document collection 118 based on a tenantidentifier associated with the search key. The search engine 124 maycomprise any suitable computing system, as described with reference toFIG. 2. For example, the search engine 124 may comprise variouscomputing modules, sub-modules, components, etc., for searching andcalculating a predicted relevancy for documents in a plurality ofdocument collections. Indeed, functional steps, operations, methods,etc., as described herein may be conducted by any suitable combinationof hardware and software on search engine 124.

Although the economies of scale offer many benefits to tenants of amulti-tenant hosting environment, some issues may arise with regard todocument searching. That is, ideally a query conducted by a tenantshould appear to the tenant as if it were conducted on a dedicatedsearch index. However, when a query is conducted for a particular tenantover all document collections (i.e., over the whole search domain), thepredicted relevancy calculation may not adequately take intoconsideration features specific to the tenant's document collection. Forexample, the average document length (AVDL) or the total document count(N) of the tenant's document collection may be different than the AVDLor the N for the whole search domain, skewing the predicted relevancycalculation for documents within the tenant's document collection.Furthermore, if tenants are competing entities it is possible that oneentity could “spam” another entity. For example, documents (or documentscontaining links referencing other documents) may be added to the searchdomain to alter the inverted document frequency (IDF) of one or moresearch keys (or to alter other ranking features), skewing the predictedrelevancy calculation. Additionally, if searching is allowed over alldocument collections within a multi-tenant hosting environment,significant processing is required to filter out the documentsassociated with other tenants. Even so, information leakage may occurbetween different entities if searching is allowed over all documentcollections within a multi-tenant hosting environment.

As may be appreciated, the disclosed aspects of a multi-tenant hostingenvironment are not to be understood as an exclusive array, as anynumber of similar suitable components may be employed within the spiritof the present disclosure. Further, the disclosed aspects are not to beunderstood as a necessary array, as any number of the disclosedcomponents may be appropriately replaced by other suitable componentswithout departing from the spirit of the present disclosure. Theillustrated embodiments of a multi-tenant hosting environment areprovided for purposes of example only.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a suitablecomputer system for implementing one or more aspects of the managementof a GUI.

The embodiments and functionalities described herein may operate via amultitude of computing systems, including wired and wireless computingsystems, mobile computing systems (e.g., mobile telephones, tablet orslate type computers, laptop computers, etc.). In addition, theembodiments and functionalities described herein may operate overdistributed systems, where application functionality, memory, datastorage and retrieval and various processing functions may be operatedremotely from each other over a distributed computing network, such asthe Internet or an intranet. User interfaces and information of varioustypes may be displayed via on-board computing device displays or viaremote display units associated with one or more computing devices.Interaction with the multitude of computing systems with whichembodiments of the invention may be practiced include, keystroke entry,touch screen entry, voice or other audio entry, gesture entry where anassociated computing device is equipped with detection (e.g., camera)functionality for capturing and interpreting user gestures forcontrolling the functionality of the computing device, and the like.FIG. 2 and the associated description provide a discussion of a varietyof operating environments in which embodiments may be practiced.However, the devices and systems described herein and illustrated anddescribed with respect to FIG. 2 are for purposes of example andillustration and are not limiting of a vast number of computing deviceconfigurations that may be utilized for practicing embodiments describedherein.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example computer system 200 upon which embodimentsdisclosed herein may be implemented. Computer system 200, such as searchengine 124 as shown in FIG. 1, for example, has at least one processor206 for searching documents within a search domain, e.g., first documentcollection 114 and the second document collection 118 as shown inFIG. 1. Computer system 200 has system memory 204 comprising, forexample, volatile memory and non-volatile memory. For example, hostingenvironment 106 may comprise system memory 204 that stores the firstdocument collection 114, the second document collection 118, database(s)126, etc. In its most basic configuration, computer system 200 isillustrated in FIG. 2 by dashed line 202. According to embodiments,computer system 200 may include additional storage (removable ornon-removable) including, but not limited to, magnetic or optical disksor tape. Such additional storage is illustrated in FIG. 2 by removablestorage 208 and non-removable storage 210.

The term computer readable media as used herein may include computerstorage media. Computer storage media may include volatile andnonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any methodor technology for storage of information, such as computer readableinstructions, data structures, program modules, or other data. Systemmemory 204, removable storage 208, and non-removable storage 210 are allcomputer storage media examples (i.e., memory storage). Computer storagemedia may include, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, electricallyerasable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory or other memorytechnology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other opticalstorage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage orother magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used tostore information and which can be accessed by computer system 200. Anysuch computer storage media may be part of computer system 200. Computersystem 200 may also have input device(s) 214 such as a keyboard, amouse, a pen, a sound input device, a touch input device, etc. Outputdevice(s) 212 such as a display, speakers, a printer, etc. may also beincluded. The aforementioned devices are examples and others may beused.

The term computer readable media as used herein may also includecommunication media. Communication media may be embodied by computerreadable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other datain a modulated data signal, such as a carrier wave or other transportmechanism, and includes any information delivery media. The term“modulated data signal” may describe a signal that has one or morecharacteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode informationin the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, communicationmedia may include wired media such as a wired network or direct-wiredconnection, and wireless media such as acoustic, radio frequency (RF),infrared, and other wireless media.

Computer system 200 may also contain communications connection(s) 216that allow the device to communicate with other devices, e.g., vianetwork 108. For example, first tenant 102 and second tenant 104 maycommunicate via communication connection(s) 216 with search engine 124in order to query the first document collection 114 or the seconddocument collection 118.

Embodiments of the invention may be practiced via a system-on-a-chip(SOC) where each or many of the components illustrated in FIG. 2 may beintegrated onto a single integrated circuit. Such an SOC device mayinclude one or more processing units, graphics units, communicationsunits, system virtualization units and various application functionalityall of which are integrated (or “burned”) onto the chip substrate as asingle integrated circuit. When operating via an SOC, the functionality,described herein, with respect to providing continuous access to aresource, may operate via application-specific logic integrated withother components of the computer system 200 on the single integratedcircuit (chip).

FIGS. 3A and 3B are flow diagrams representing an embodiment of a methodfor indexing a first document associated with a first tenant and asecond document associated with a second tenant in a multi-tenanthosting environment.

According to some embodiments, some or all of the method 300 of FIGS. 3Aand 3B may be implemented on a computer system, e.g., computer system200. Further, some or all of the method 300 of FIGS. 3A and 3B may beperformed within a multi-tenant hosting environment, e.g., hostingenvironment 106.

The method 300 of FIG. 3A begins with assign operation 302. At assignoperation 302, a first tenant identifier (TID₁) is assigned to a firsttenant and a second tenant identifier (TID₂) is assigned to a secondtenant in a multi-tenant hosting environment. The first tenantidentifier and the second tenant identifier may be any suitableidentifier, e.g., a unique numeric constant used to denote the firsttenant and a unique numeric constant used to denote the second tenant.

At detect operation 304, it is detected that a first document of aplurality of documents is associated with the first tenant. For example,a computer system associated with a multi-tenant hosting environment maydetect that the first document is associated with the first tenant viaany suitable means. According to embodiments, a computer systemassociated with a multi-tenant hosting environment may associate thefirst document with the first tenant when the first document is storedin a database on the hosting environment. According to alternativeembodiments, a computer system associated with a multi-tenant hostingenvironment may access the first document in a database on the firsttenant, thereby detecting that the first document is associated with thefirst tenant.

At identify properties operation 306, one or more properties of thefirst document are identified. The one or more properties of the firstdocument may be identified via any suitable means, e.g., by a documentcrawler. Properties of documents include body, title, headings, cells,table of contents, metadata, anchor text, etc. According to embodiments,each document of the plurality of documents associated with the firsttenant may have one or more of the same properties. That is, onedocument may have a first property of title and a second property ofbody and another document may have a first property of title, a secondproperty of body, and a third property of metadata. As such, the firstproperty of one document may be compared to the first property over theplurality of documents, e.g., a length of the first property in onedocument may be compared to an average length of the first property overthe plurality of documents.

At identify keys operation 308, one or more keys associated with each ofthe one or more properties of the first document are identified. The oneor more keys may be identified via any suitable means, e.g., by adocument crawler. A key (K) refers to anything that is searchable withina document, e.g., words, phrases, numbers, symbols, etc. As such, thecomputer system may identify a key “airplane” in a first property of thefirst document (e.g., a title property) and may also identify the key“airplane” in a second property of the first document (e.g., a bodyproperty). Alternatively, the computer system may identify a key “soar”in the second property of the first document (e.g., a body property) butnot in the first property of the first document (e.g., a titleproperty).

At prepend operation 310, the first tenant identifier is prepended toeach of the one or more keys associated with each of the one or moreproperties of the first document. For example, a computer systemassociated with a multi-tenant hosting environment may prepend the firsttenant identifier to each of the one or more keys via any suitablemeans. As specified above, in this embodiment, the first document isassociated with the first tenant. As such, each key identified in thefirst document is prepended with the first tenant identifier assigned tothe first tenant. According to embodiments, by prepending each key (K)of the one or more keys (n) with the first tenant identifier (TID₁), oneor more first tenant identifier-key combinations are formed, e.g.,TID₁-K_(n).

At store operation 312, each of first tenant identifier-key combinations(TID₁-K_(n)) is stored in a search index, e.g., an inverted searchindex. For example, a computer system associated with a multi-tenanthosting environment may store the first tenant identifier-keycombinations in the search index via any suitable means. In this way,tenant identifier-key combinations of one tenant may be distinguishedfrom tenant identifier-key combinations of other tenants in amulti-tenant hosting environment based on the prepended tenantidentifier.

At map operation 314, each of the one or more properties of the firstdocument is mapped to one or more of the first tenant identifier-keycombinations in a search index. For example, a computer systemassociated with a multi-tenant hosting environment may map the one ormore properties to the first tenant identifier-key combinations in thesearch index via any suitable means. For example, the search index maycomprise an inverted index in which each of the one or more first tenantidentifier-key combinations is mapped to one or more properties of aplurality of documents associated with the first tenant. In this way,keys mapped to documents of one tenant may be distinguished from keysmapped to the documents of other tenants (i.e., mapped to second tenantidentifier-key combinations) in a multi-tenant hosting environment.Thus, document collections from a plurality of tenants may be mapped tothe same search index, e.g., search index 122.

At identify operation 316, a length of each property in the firstdocument (D₁L_(p)) is identified and stored. According to embodiments,the length of each property of the first document may be detected viaany suitable means, e.g., word count. Moreover, each property of thefirst document may have a different length. For example, a titleproperty may have a different length from a body property. According toembodiments, the length of each property in the first document may beidentified by a computer system on the hosting environment when thefirst document is stored in a database or indexed on the hostingenvironment. According to alternative embodiments, the computer systemassociated with a multi-tenant hosting environment may access the lengthof each property in the first document in a database of the firsttenant. Upon identifying the length of each property in the firstdocument, the length of each property (D₁L_(p)) may be stored on thehosting environment in a dictionary associated with the first tenant(e.g., first dictionary 128) or other dictionary or database.Alternatively, upon identifying the length of each property in the firstdocument, the length of each property (D₁L_(p)) may be stored in adatabase of the first tenant.

At determine operation 318, a document frequency (n) for each of the oneor more first tenant identifier-key combinations is determined. Forexample, a computer system on the hosting environment may determine adocument frequency, n, for each first tenant identifier-key combinationassociated with the first tenant, i.e., TID₁-K_(n). This determinationmay be based on the length of a postings list in the inverted indexassociated with TID₁-K_(n). According to embodiments, determination ofthe document frequency does not require any additional computation tofilter out statistics for other tenants in the multi-tenant hostingenvironment. According to additional embodiments, a computer systemassociated with a multi-tenant hosting environment may store thedocument frequency for each first tenant identifier-key combination inthe search index via any suitable means. In this way, the documentfrequency associated with each tenant identifier-key combination of thefirst tenant may be distinguished from the document frequency for eachtenant identifier-key combination of other tenants in a multi-tenanthosting environment.

The method 300 of FIG. 3B, which is a continuation of the method 300 ofFIG. 3A, begins with detect operation 320. At detect operation 320, itis detected that a second document of a plurality of documents isassociated with the second tenant. For example, a computer systemassociated with a multi-tenant hosting environment may detect that thesecond document is associated with the second tenant via any suitablemeans. According to embodiments, a computer system associated with amulti-tenant hosting environment may associate the second document withthe second tenant when the second document is stored in a database onthe hosting environment. That is, the first document associated with thefirst tenant and the second document associated with the second tenantmay both be stored within the hosting environment. According toalternative embodiments, a computer system associated with amulti-tenant hosting environment may access the second document in adatabase on the second tenant, thereby detecting that the seconddocument is associated with the second tenant.

At identify properties operation 322, one or more properties of thesecond document are identified. The one or more properties of the seconddocument may be identified via any suitable means, e.g., by a documentcrawler. According to embodiments, the second document may have one ormore of the same types of properties as the first document, e.g., afirst property of title and a second property of body. Even so, it isundesirable that the properties of a document associated with one tenantbe compared with the properties of a document associated with anothertenant.

At identify keys operation 324, one or more keys associated with each ofthe one or more properties of the second document are identified. Aswith identify keys operation 308, the one or more keys may be identifiedvia any suitable means, e.g., by a document crawler.

At prepend operation 326, the second tenant identifier is prepended toeach of the one or more keys associated with each of the one or moreproperties of the second document. For example, a computer systemassociated with a multi-tenant hosting environment may prepend thesecond tenant identifier to each of the one or more keys via anysuitable means. As specified above, in this embodiment, the seconddocument is associated with the second tenant. As such, each keyidentified in the second document is prepended with the second tenantidentifier assigned to the second tenant. According to embodiments, byprepending each key (K) of the one or more keys (n) with the secondtenant identifier (TID₂), one or more first tenant identifier-keycombinations are formed, e.g., TID₂-K_(n). In this way, keys identifiedin the second document associated with the second tenant aredistinguishable from keys identified in the first document associatedwith the first tenant.

At store operation 328, each of second tenant identifier-keycombinations (TID₂-K_(n)) is stored in the search index, e.g., aninverted search index. For example, a computer system associated with amulti-tenant hosting environment may store the second tenantidentifier-key combinations in the search index via any suitable means.In this way, tenant identifier-key combinations of one tenant may bedistinguished from tenant identifier-key combinations of other tenantsin a multi-tenant hosting environment based on the prepended tenantidentifier.

At map operation 330, each of the one or more properties of the seconddocument is mapped to one or more of the second tenant identifier-keycombinations in the search index. For example, a computer systemassociated with a multi-tenant hosting environment may map the one ormore properties to the second tenant identifier-key combinations in thesearch index via any suitable means. For example, the search index maycomprise an inverted index in which each of the one or more secondtenant identifier-key combinations is mapped to one or more propertiesof a plurality of documents associated with the second tenant. Moreover,the search index may further comprise the one or more first tenantidentifier-key combinations mapped to one or more properties of aplurality of documents associated with the first tenant. Thus, documentcollections from a plurality of tenants may be mapped to the same searchindex, e.g., search index 122.

At identify operation 332, a length of each property in the seconddocument (D₂L_(p)) is identified and stored. According to embodiments,the length of each property of the second document may be detected viaany suitable means, e.g., character count, word count, page count, etc.Moreover, each property of the second document may have a differentlength. For example, a title property may have a different length from abody property, etc. According to embodiments, the length of eachproperty in the second document may be identified by a computer systemon the hosting environment when the second document is stored in adatabase or indexed on the hosting environment. According to alternativeembodiments, the computer system associated with a multi-tenant hostingenvironment may access the length of each property in the seconddocument in a database of the second tenant. Upon identifying the lengthof each property in the second document, the length of each property(D₂L_(p)) may be stored on the hosting environment in a dictionaryassociated with the second tenant (e.g., second dictionary 130) or otherdictionary or database. Alternatively, upon identifying the length ofeach property in the second document, the length of each property(D₁L_(p)) may be stored in a database of the second tenant.

At determine operation 334, a document frequency (n) for each of the oneor more second tenant identifier-key combinations may be determined. Forexample, a computer system on the hosting environment may determine adocument frequency, n, for each second tenant identifier-key combinationassociated with the second tenant, i.e., TID₂-K_(n). This determinationmay be based on the length of a postings list in the inverted indexassociated with TID₂-K_(n). According to embodiments, determination ofthe document frequency does not require any additional computation tofilter out statistics for other tenants in the multi-tenant hostingenvironment. Moreover, a computer system associated with a multi-tenanthosting environment may store the document frequency for each secondtenant identifier-key combination in the search index via any suitablemeans. In this way, the document frequency associated with each tenantidentifier-key combination of the second tenant may be distinguishedfrom the document frequency for each tenant identifier-key combinationof other tenants in a multi-tenant hosting environment.

As should be appreciated, the particular steps and methods describedherein are not exclusive and, as will be understood by those skilled inthe art, the particular ordering of steps as described herein is notintended to limit the method, e.g., steps may be performed in differingorder, additional steps may be performed, and disclosed steps may beexcluded without departing from the spirit of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram representing an embodiment of a method forcalculating and storing an average document length for each property(AVDL_(p)) associated with a tenant in a multi-tenant hostingenvironment.

According to some embodiments, some or all of the method of FIG. 4 maybe implemented on a computer system, e.g., computer system 200. Further,some or all of the method of FIG. 4 may be performed within amulti-tenant hosting environment, e.g., hosting environment 106. Furtherstill, some or all of the method of FIG. 4 may be performed inconjunction with or in addition to the method of FIGS. 3A and 3B.

At identify operation 402, a plurality of documents associated with afirst tenant in a multi-tenant hosting environment are identified.Moreover, a first total document count (N₁) in the plurality ofdocuments associated with the first tenant is identified. For example,the first total document count (N₁) may be identified by a computersystem on the hosting environment when the plurality of documentsassociated with the first tenant are stored in a database or indexed onthe hosting environment. The computer system may further store N₁ in adictionary (e.g., first dictionary 128) or other database on themulti-tenant hosting environment, e.g., hosting environment 106.According to alternative embodiments, the computer system may access thefirst total document count (N₁) in a dictionary or other database of thefirst tenant.

At retrieve operation 404, a length of each property of each documentassociated with the first tenant in a multi-tenant hosting environmentis retrieved. According to embodiments, the length of each property maybe retrieved via any suitable means. For example, the document lengthfor a first property (D₁L_(p)) associated with a first document may beretrieved from a dictionary associated with the first tenant (e.g.,first dictionary 128) or other database on the hosting environment.According to alternative embodiments, the computer system associatedwith a multi-tenant hosting environment may retrieve D₁L_(p) in adictionary or other database of the first tenant.

At calculate operation 406, an average document length for each propertyassociated with the first tenant (AVD₁L_(p)) in a multi-tenant hostingenvironment is calculated and stored. According to embodiments, acomputer system on the hosting environment may calculate the AVD₁L_(p)for each property associated with the first tenant via any suitablemeans. For example, upon retrieving a document length for a firstproperty of a plurality of documents associated with the first tenant,the average document length for the first property may be calculated bytaking the total document length of the first property divided by thenumber of documents associated with the first tenant that have the firstproperty. Upon calculating the AVD₁L_(p) for each property associatedwith the first tenant, the AVD₁L_(p) may be stored on the hostingenvironment in a dictionary associated with the first tenant (e.g.,first dictionary 128) or other database. Alternatively, upon calculatingthe AVD₁L_(p) for each property associated with the first tenant, theAVD₁L_(p) for each property may be stored in a database of the firsttenant.

At identify operation 408, a plurality of documents associated with thesecond tenant in a multi-tenant hosting environment are identified.Moreover, a second total document count (N₂) in the plurality ofdocuments associated with the second tenant is identified. According toembodiments, the second total document count (N₂) may be identified viaany suitable means. For example, the second total document count (N₂)may be identified by the computer system on the hosting environment whenthe plurality of documents associated with the second tenant are storedin a database or indexed on the hosting environment. The computer systemmay further store N₂ in a dictionary (e.g., second dictionary 130) orother database on the multi-tenant hosting environment, e.g., hostingenvironment 106. According to alternative embodiments, the computersystem may access the second total document count (N₂) in a dictionaryor other database of the second tenant.

At retrieve operation 410, a length of each property of each documentassociated with the second tenant in a multi-tenant hosting environmentis retrieved. According to embodiments, a computer system on the hostingenvironment may retrieve the length of each property via any suitablemeans. For example, the document length for a first property associatedwith a second document (D₂L_(p)) may be retrieved from a dictionaryassociated with the second tenant (e.g., second dictionary 130) or otherdatabase on the hosting environment. According to alternativeembodiments, the computer system associated with a multi-tenant hostingenvironment may retrieve D₂L_(p) in a dictionary or other database ofthe second tenant.

At calculate operation 412, an average document length for each propertyassociated with the second tenant (AVD₂L_(p)) in a multi-tenant hostingenvironment is calculated and stored. According to embodiments, acomputer system on the hosting environment may calculate the AVD₂L_(p)for each property associated with the second tenant via any suitablemeans. For example, upon retrieving a document length for a firstproperty of a plurality of documents associated with the second tenant,the average document length for the first property may be calculated bytaking the total document length of the first property divided by thenumber of documents associated with the second tenant that have thefirst property. Upon calculating the AVD₂L_(p) for each propertyassociated with the second tenant, the AVD₂L_(p) may be stored on thehosting environment in a dictionary associated with the second tenant(e.g., second dictionary 130) or other database. That is, the AVD₁L_(p)associated with the first tenant and the AVD₂L_(p) associated with thesecond tenant may both be stored on the multi-tenant hostingenvironment. Alternatively, upon calculating the AVD₂L_(p) for eachproperty associated with the second tenant, the AVD₂L_(p) for eachproperty may be stored in a database of the second tenant.

As should be appreciated, the particular steps and methods describedherein are not exclusive and, as will be understood by those skilled inthe art, the particular ordering of steps as described herein is notintended to limit the method, e.g., steps may be performed in differingorder, additional steps may be performed, and disclosed steps may beexcluded without departing from the spirit of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram representing an embodiment of a method fortenantizing links in a web graph.

According to some embodiments, some or all of the method of FIG. 5 maybe implemented on a computer system, e.g., computer system 200. Further,some or all of the method of FIG. 5 may be performed within amulti-tenant hosting environment, e.g., hosting environment 106. Furtherstill, some or all of the method of FIG. 5 may be performed inconjunction with or in addition to the methods of FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 4.

The method of FIG. 5 begins with assign operation 502. At assignoperation 502, a first tenant identifier (TID₁) is assigned to a firsttenant and a second tenant identifier (TID₂) is assigned to a secondtenant in a multi-tenant hosting environment. For example, a computersystem on the multi-tenant hosting environment may assign the firsttenant identifier (TID₁) to the first tenant and the second tenantidentifier (TID₂) to the second tenant via any suitable means.Alternatively, the first tenant may assign the TID₁ and may provide theTID₁ to the computer system on the multi-tenant hosting environment; andthe second tenant may assign the TID₂ and may provide the TID₂ to thecomputer system on the multi-tenant hosting environment. The firsttenant identifier and the second tenant identifier may be any suitableidentifier, e.g., a unique numeric constant used to denote the firsttenant and a unique numeric constant used to denote the second tenant.

At detect operation 504, a first document of a plurality of documentsassociated with the first tenant is detected. For example, a computersystem associated with a multi-tenant hosting environment may detectthat the first document is associated with the first tenant via anysuitable means. For example, the computer system may detect that thefirst document is associated with the first tenant by querying databasesof document collections stored on the multi-tenant hosting environment.According to alternative embodiments, the computer system may detectthat the first document is associated with the first tenant by accessingmetadata in the first document. According to still alternativeembodiments, the computer system may detect that the first document isassociated with the first tenant by accessing the first document in adatabase of the first tenant.

At detect link operation 506, a link is detected in the first document.The link may be detected via any suitable means, e.g., by a documentcrawler. For example, the document crawler may detect the link byparsing the document. According to embodiments, links may be embedded inthe document, e.g., as html tags or other types of links. According toembodiments, the computer system associated with a multi-tenant hostingenvironment detects the link in the first document when the firstdocument is stored in a database on the hosting environment. Accordingto alternative embodiments, the computer system detects the link in thefirst document by accessing the first document in a database of thefirst tenant.

At store operation 508, the first tenant identifier (TID₁) is stored asa source tenant identifier (sTID₁) with the link in a web graph on themulti-tenant hosting environment. For example, a document crawler maybuild a web graph in which nodes correspond to each document and edgescorrespond to the links between them. The document crawler may beassociated with a computer system of the multi-tenant hostingenvironment and may store the first tenant identifier with the link viaany suitable means. For example, the link may be associated with sTID₁and may be stored in the web graph of cross-document linking informationon the multi-tenant hosting environment, e.g., web graph 132.

At detect reference operation 510, it is detected that the linkreferences a second document. The reference to the second document maybe detected via any suitable means. For example, a document crawlerassociated with the multi-tenant hosting environment may detect apointer to the second document in the link. According to embodiments,the first document may include metadata or other information regardingthe second document (e.g., anchor text). According to embodiments,anchor text in a source document may be used for calculating predictedrelevance of a target document.

At detect operation 512, a computer system detects a tenant that thesecond document is associated with. For example, the computer systemassociated with a multi-tenant hosting environment may detect that thesecond document is associated with the first tenant by queryingdatabases of document collections stored on the multi-tenant hostingenvironment. Alternatively, the computer system associated with amulti-tenant hosting environment may detect that the second document isassociated with the second tenant by querying databases of documentcollections stored on the multi-tenant hosting environment. According toalternative embodiments, the computer system may detect that the seconddocument is associated with the first tenant or with the second tenantby accessing metadata in the second document. If it is detected that thesecond document is associated with the first tenant, a target tenantidentifier associated with the second document will be the first tenantidentifier (tTID₁). If it is detected that the second document isassociated with the second tenant, a target tenant identifier associatedwith the second document will be the second tenant identifier (tTID₂).

At determination operation 514, the document crawler determines whetherthe target tenant identifier matches the source tenant identifier. Ifthe target tenant identifier associated with the second document is thefirst tenant identifier (tTID₁), the target tenant identifier matchesthe source tenant identifier and the method proceeds to store operation518. If the target tenant identifier associated with the second documentis the second tenant identifier (tTID₁), the target tenant identifierdoes not matches the source tenant identifier and the method proceeds todo not store operation 516.

At do not store operation 516, the document crawler does not store thelink in a web graph on the multi-tenant hosting environment. As such,the link may not be resolved. In this case, anchor text in the sourcedocument may not be used for calculating a predicted relevance for thetarget document.

At store operation 518, the link is stored in a web graph on themulti-tenant hosting environment. For example, a document crawler maybuild the web graph in which nodes correspond to each document and edgescorrespond to the links between them. The document crawler may beassociated with a computer system of the multi-tenant hostingenvironment and may store the link via any suitable means. For example,the link may be stored in web graph 132. In this case, the link may beresolved and anchor text in the source document may be used forcalculating a predicted relevance for the target document.

As should be appreciated, the particular steps and methods describedherein are not exclusive and, as will be understood by those skilled inthe art, the particular ordering of steps as described herein is notintended to limit the method, e.g., steps may be performed in differingorder, additional steps may be performed, and disclosed steps may beexcluded without departing from the spirit of the present disclosure.

FIGS. 6A and 6B are flow diagrams representing an embodiment of a methodfor searching documents in a multi-tenant hosting environment.

According to some embodiments, some or all of the method of FIGS. 6A and6B may be implemented on a computer system, e.g., computer system 200.Further, some or all of the method of FIGS. 6A and 6B may be performedwithin a multi-tenant hosting environment, e.g., hosting environment106. Further still, some or all of the method of FIGS. 6A and 6B may beperformed in conjunction with or in addition to the methods of FIGS. 3A,3B, 4, and 5.

The method 600 of FIG. 6A begins with receive operation 602. At receiveoperation 602, one or more search keys are received from a tenant in amulti-tenant hosting environment. A search key may be anything that issearchable within a document, e.g., a word, phrase, number, symbol, etc.For example, the one or more search keys may be received as input from auser, e.g., via user interface 110 on the first tenant 102 or userinterface 112 on second tenant 104. According to embodiments, the one ormore search keys specify documents that may be relevant to the user.

At detect tenant operation 604, a tenant identifier associated with thetenant is detected. For example, a computer system associated with amulti-tenant hosting environment may detect that the one or more searchkeys are received via user interface 110. In this case, the computersystem may detect a first tenant identifier (TID₁) associated with thefirst tenant 102 based on site context. Alternatively, the computersystem associated with the multi-tenant hosting environment may detectthat the one or more search keys are received via user interface 112. Inthis case, the computer system may detect a second tenant identifier(TID₂) associated with the second tenant 104 based on site context.Alternatively still, the first tenant identifier (TID₁) associated withtenant 102 may be provided with the one or more search keys at receiveoperation 602, or the second tenant identifier (TID₂) associated withtenant 104 may be provided with the one or more search keys at receiveoperation 602.

At prepend operation 606, the tenant identifier is prepended to each ofthe one or more search keys. For example, if the computer systemassociated with the multi-tenant hosting environment detected the firsttenant identifier, the first tenant identifier (TID₁) may be added priorto each of the one or more search keys (SK_(n)) to form one or morefirst tenant identifier-search key combinations, e.g., TID₁-SK_(n).Alternatively, if the computer system associated with the multi-tenanthosting environment detected the second tenant identifier, the secondtenant identifier (TID₂) may be added prior to each of the one or moresearch keys (SK_(n)) to form one or more second tenant identifier-searchkey combinations, e.g., TID₂-SK_(n). Alternatively still, the firsttenant identifier (TID₁) may be prepended to the one or more search keysby tenant 102 and the first tenant identifier-search key combinations,e.g., TID₁-SK_(n), may be provided to the multi-tenant hostingenvironment at receive operation 602. Alternatively, the second tenantidentifier (TID₂) may be prepended to the one or more search keys bytenant 104 and the second tenant identifier-search key combinations,e.g., TID₂-SK_(n), may be provided to the multi-tenant hostingenvironment at receive operation 602.

At query operation 608, a search index is queried for one or more tenantidentifier-key combinations (TID-K_(n)) corresponding to the one or moretenant identifier-search key combinations (TID-SK_(n)). For example, asearch engine associated with the multi-tenant hosting environment mayquery the search index (e.g., search index 122) for a TID-K that matcheseach TID-SK. As specified above, the search index may include aplurality of keys mapped to each property of the plurality of documentsassociated with the first tenant, e.g., TID₁-K_(n), and a plurality ofkeys mapped to each property of the plurality of documents associatedwith the second tenant, e.g., TID₂-K_(n). Thus, for one or moreTID₁-SK_(n), the search engine associated with the multi-tenant hostingenvironment may query the search index for one or more TID₁-K_(n).Alternatively, for one or more TID₂-SK_(n), the search engine associatedwith the multi-tenant hosting environment may query the search index forone or more TID₂-K_(n).

At return operation 610, one or more documents mapped to one or moretenant identifier-key combinations (TID-K_(n)) are returned that matchthe one or more tenant identifier-search key combinations (TID-SK_(n)).That is, the key combinations and search key combinations will have thesame prepended tenant identifier. For example, upon receiving a searchkey “airplane” from user interface 110, a search engine (e.g., searchengine 124) may prepend a first tenant identifier to the search key toform a first tenant identifier-search key combination, e.g.,TID₁-SK_(airplane). The search engine may return one or more documentsmapped to a corresponding first tenant identifier-key combination, e.g.,TID₁-K_(airplane), in the search index. According to furtherembodiments, the search engine may identify one or more properties ofthe one or more documents returned that are mapped to the correspondingfirst tenant identifier-key combination, e.g., TID₁-K_(airplane), in thesearch index. As such, the query returns only documents associated withthe tenant queried (based on the tenant identifier). As such, documentsof other tenants do not need to be filtered out of the returneddocuments, saving considerable processing load.

The method 600 of FIG. 6B, which is a continuation of the method 600 ofFIG. 6A, begins with determine operation 612. At determine operation612, the search engine may determine a document frequency (n) of each ofthe one or more tenant identifier-key combinations (TID-K_(n)). Forexample, the search engine may determine a document frequency, n, forthe first tenant identifier-key combination associated with the“airplane” key, i.e., for TID₁-K_(airplane). This determination may bebased on the length of a postings list in the inverted index associatedwith TID₁-K_(airplane). According to some embodiments, determination ofthe document frequency for TID₁-K_(airplane) may comprise retrieving thedocument frequency from the search index or from some other datastorage. According to embodiments, determination of the documentfrequency does not require any additional computation to filter outstatistics for other tenants in the multi-tenant hosting environment.

At retrieve operation 614, an average document length of each property(AVDL_(p)) of the one or more identified properties associated with thetenant and a total document count (N) associated with the tenant areretrieved. As described above, an AVDL_(p) for each property associatedwith the tenant and an N for each tenant of a multi-tenant hostingenvironment may be stored in a dictionary or other database on themulti-tenant hosting environment. For example, an AVD₁L_(p) for eachproperty associated with a first tenant and an N₁ associated with thefirst tenant may be stored in a first dictionary 128 in the multi-tenanthosting environment. Moreover, an AVD₂L_(p) for each property associatedwith a second tenant and an N₂ associated with the second tenant may bestored in a second dictionary 130 on the multi-tenant hostingenvironment. According to some embodiments, the AVD₁L_(p) for eachproperty and the N₁ associated with the first tenant and the AVD₂L_(p)for each property and the N₂ associated with the second tenant may bestored in the same dictionary on the multi-tenant hosting environment.

At calculate operation 616, a predicted relevance of each document ofthe one or more documents returned for the tenant is calculated via anysuitable means. For example, a search engine (e.g., search engine 124)may execute a ranking function that evaluates the quality of matchbetween the search and each document of the one or more documents may beused, e.g., a ranking function referred to as BM25F. BM25F may be usedto calculate a predicted relevance of each document of the one or moredocuments by accounting for each occurrence of each search key as itappears in each property associated with each document being scored.Each property has its own weight and associated values (such as lengthand term frequency, tf) that are used to generate a property-specificscore for that occurrence. All property scores may be combined for eachsearch key and these search key scores may be combined across the one ormore search keys in the query to provide an overall score for eachdocument.

The BM25F ranking function is as follows:

${{BM}\; 25F} = {\sum{\frac{{tf}^{\prime}\left( {k_{1} + 1} \right)}{k_{1} + {tf}^{\prime}} \cdot {\log \left( \frac{N}{n_{t}} \right)}}}$${tf}_{t}^{\prime} = {\sum\limits_{p \in D}^{\;}\; {{tf}_{t,p} \cdot w_{p} \cdot \frac{1}{\left( {1 - b} \right) + {b\left( \frac{{DL}_{p}}{{AVDL}_{p}} \right)}}}}$

where t is a search key; p is a property of the document; N is the totaldocument count for the tenant; n_(t) is the number of documentscontaining search key t; DL_(p) is the length of the property p;AVDL_(p) is the average document length of the property p; tf_(t,p) isthe search key t frequency in the property p; w_(p) is the weight forthe property p; b is the length normalization for the property p; and k₁is the curvature (a tunable constant).

In the BM25F formula, each property, p, of a document may contain one ormore search keys. In an embodiment, properties include a body property,title property, author property, anchor text property, URL display nameproperty, metadata property, extracted title property, etc. It should benoted that some of the properties (i.e., body) are part of the documentitself, while other properties may be metadata directly associated withthe document and still other properties (e.g., anchor text associatedwith a link in the document) may be metadata which is indirectlyassociated with the document because it is stored with a differentdocument.

With respect to a multi-tenant hosting environment, each document of theone or more documents returned in the query may be ranked using theBM25F ranking function. However, in this case, each document may beranked based on parameters associated with a particular tenant. Forexample, for each of the one or more documents returned for a firsttenant, the parameters of the BM25F ranking function may include: t is asearch key; p is a property of a document associated with the firsttenant; N₁ is the total document count for the first tenant; n_(t) isthe number of documents associated with the first tenant containing thesearch key t; D₁L_(p) is the length of the property p associated withthe document; AVD₁L_(p) is the average document length of the property pfor the first tenant; tf_(t,p) is the search key t frequency in theproperty p associated with the document; w_(p) is the weight for theproperty p; b is the length normalization for the property p; and k₁ isthe curvature. Utilizing the BM25F ranking function, a term score foreach of the one or more properties in each document, among otherfeatures, may be combined to provide an overall score for each documentof the one or more documents returned for the first tenant. According toembodiments, the overall score is associated with a predicted relevancefor each of the one or more documents returned for the first tenant.

Alternatively, for each of the one or more documents returned for asecond tenant, the parameters of the BM25F ranking function may include:t is a search key; p is a property of a document associated with thesecond tenant; N₂ is the total document count for the second tenant;n_(t) is the number of documents associated with the second tenantcontaining the search key t; D₂L_(p) is the length of the property passociated with the document; AVD₂L_(p) is the average document lengthof the property p for the second tenant; tf_(t,p) is the search key tfrequency in the property p associated with the document; w_(p) is theweight for the property p; b is the length normalization for theproperty p; and k₁ is the curvature. Utilizing the BM25F rankingfunction, an overall score may be calculated for each of the one or moredocuments returned for the second tenant. Utilizing the BM25F rankingfunction, a term score for each of the one or more properties in eachdocument, among other features, may be combined to provide an overallscore for each document of the one or more documents returned for thesecond tenant. According to embodiments, the overall score is associatedwith a predicted relevance for each of the one or more documentsreturned for the second tenant.

At rank operation 618, each document of the one or more documentsreturned for the tenant is ranked in order of decreasing predictedrelevance. For example, each document may be ranked based on the overallscore resulting from the BM25F ranking function. That is, the overallscore associated with each document may be used to arrange the one ormore documents in order of decreasing predicted relevance. As such, forone or more documents returned for the first tenant, each document maybe ranked in order of decreasing predicted relevance with respect to thefirst tenant. Alternatively, for one or more documents returned for thesecond tenant, each document may be ranked in order of decreasingpredicted relevance with respect to the second tenant.

At display operation 620, at least a subset of the one or more documentsis displayed in order of decreasing predicted relevance. As noted above,upon conducting a query, documents may be displayed in one or moresubsets, e.g., of 10 or 20 documents at a time. Based on ranking the oneor more documents, documents may be displayed such that documents whichare more likely to be relevant may be presented first. That is,according to embodiments, at least a subset of the one or more documentsthat are most likely to be relevant may be displayed. According toalternative embodiments, all of the one or more documents may beavailable for display upon selection of each of the one or more subsets.

As should be appreciated, the particular steps and methods describedherein are not exclusive and, as will be understood by those skilled inthe art, the particular ordering of steps as described herein is notintended to limit the method, e.g., steps may be performed in differingorder, additional steps may be performed, and disclosed steps may beexcluded without departing from the spirit of the present disclosure.

FIGS. 7A and 7B are flow diagrams representing an embodiment of a methodfor resolving a link when searching documents in a multi-tenant hostingenvironment.

According to some embodiments, some or all of the method 700 of FIGS. 7Aand 7B may be preferably implemented on a computer system, e.g.,computer system 200. Further, some or all of the method 700 of FIGS. 7Aand 7B may be performed within a multi-tenant hosting environment, e.g.,hosting environment 106. Further still, some or all of the method 700 ofFIGS. 7A and 7B may be performed in conjunction with or in addition tothe methods of FIGS. 3A, 3B, 4, 5, 6A and 6B.

The method 700 of FIG. 7A begins with receive operation 702. At receiveoperation 702, as with receive operation 602, one or more search keysare received from a tenant in a multi-tenant hosting environment. Forexample, the one or more search keys may be received as input from auser, e.g., via user interface 110 on the first tenant 102 or userinterface 112 on second tenant 104. According to embodiments, the one ormore search keys specify documents that may be relevant to the user.

At detect tenant operation 704, as with detect tenant operation 604, atenant identifier associated with the tenant is detected. For example, acomputer system associated with a multi-tenant hosting environment maydetect that the one or more search keys are received via user interface110. In this case, the computer system may detect a first tenantidentifier (TID₁) associated with the first tenant 102 based on sitecontext. Alternatively, the computer system associated with themulti-tenant hosting environment may detect that the one or more searchkeys are received via user interface 112. In this case, the computersystem may detect a second tenant identifier (TID₂) associated with thesecond tenant 104 based on site context. Alternatively still, the firsttenant identifier (TID₁) associated with tenant 102 may be provided withthe one or more search keys at receive operation 702, or the secondtenant identifier (TID₂) associated with tenant 104 may be provided withthe one or more search keys at receive operation 702.

At prepend operation 706, as with prepend operation 606, the tenantidentifier is prepended to each of the one or more search keys. Forexample, if the computer system associated with the multi-tenant hostingenvironment detected the first tenant identifier, the first tenantidentifier (TID₁) may be added prior to each of the one or more searchkeys (SK_(n)) to form one or more first tenant identifier-search keycombinations, e.g., TID₁-SK_(n). Alternatively, if the computer systemassociated with the multi-tenant hosting environment detected the secondtenant identifier, the second tenant identifier (TID₂) may be addedprior to each of the one or more search keys (SK_(n)) to form one ormore second tenant identifier-search key combinations, e.g.,TID₂-SK_(n). Alternatively still, the first tenant identifier (TID₁) maybe prepended to the one or more search keys by tenant 102 and the firsttenant identifier-search key combinations, e.g., TID₁-SK_(n), may beprovided to the multi-tenant hosting environment at receive operation702. Alternatively, the second tenant identifier (TID₂) may be prependedto the one or more search keys by tenant 104 and the second tenantidentifier-search key combinations, e.g., TID₂-SK_(n), may be providedto the multi-tenant hosting environment at receive operation 702.

At query operation 708, as with query operation 608, a search index isqueried for one or more tenant identifier-key combinations (TID-K_(n))corresponding to the one or more tenant identifier-search keycombinations (TID-SK_(n)). That is, a search engine associated with themulti-tenant hosting environment may query the search index (e.g.,search index 122) for a TID-K that matches each TID-SK. As specifiedabove, the search index may include a plurality of keys mapped to eachproperty of the plurality of documents associated with the first tenant,e.g., TID₁-K_(n), and a plurality of keys mapped to each property of theplurality of documents associated with the second tenant, e.g.,TID₂-K_(n). Thus, for one or more TID₁-SK_(n), the search engineassociated with the multi-tenant hosting environment may query thesearch index for one or more TID₁-K_(n). Alternatively, for one or moreTID₂-SK_(n), the search engine associated with the multi-tenant hostingenvironment may query the search index for one or more TID₂-K_(n).

At return operation 710, as with return operation 610, one or moredocuments mapped to one or more tenant identifier-key combinations(TID-K_(n)) are returned that match the one or more tenantidentifier-search key combinations (TID-SK_(n)). For example, uponreceiving a search key “airplane” from user interface 110, a searchengine (e.g., search engine 124) may prepend a first tenant identifierto the search key to form a first tenant identifier-search keycombination, e.g., TID₁-SK_(airplane). The search engine may return oneor more documents mapped to a corresponding first tenant identifier-keycombination, e.g., TID₁-K_(airplane), in the search index. According tofurther embodiments, the search engine may identify one or moreproperties of the one or more documents returned that are mapped to thecorresponding first tenant identifier-key combination, e.g.,TID₁-K_(airplane), in the search index.

At detect link operation 712, a link is detected in a second documentthat references the first document. The link may be detected via anysuitable means, e.g., by a document crawler. According to embodiments, adocument crawler associated with a multi-tenant hosting environment maydetect the link in the second document upon parsing the second document.According to embodiments, the link may be embedded in the seconddocument, e.g., as an html tag or other type of link, and the link mayreference the first document. The second document may be associated witha source tenant identifier on the multi-tenant hosting environment.

The method 700 of FIG. 7B, which is a continuation of the method 700 ofFIG. 7A, begins with access web graph operation 714. For example, acomputer on the multi-tenant hosting environment may access web graph132. Web graph 132 may be built such that nodes correspond to documentsand edges correspond to the links between them. Moreover, a link may bestored in web graph 132 only if a target tenant identifier for the firstdocument matches the source tenant identifier for the second document.For example, there is a match if the target tenant identifier is thefirst tenant identifier (tTID₁) and the source tenant identifier is thefirst tenant identifier (sTID₁). Additionally, there is a match if thetarget tenant identifier is the second tenant identifier (tTID₂) and thesource tenant identifier is the second tenant identifier (sTID₂). In thecase of a match, the link will be included in web graph 132. On theother hand, there is not a match if the target tenant identifier is thefirst tenant identifier (tTID₁) and the source tenant identifier is thesecond tenant identifier (sTID₂). Additionally, there is not a match ifthe target tenant identifier is the second tenant identifier (tTID₂) andthe source tenant identifier is the first tenant identifier (sTID₁). Inthe case of no match, the link will not be included in web graph 132.

At determination operation 716, it is determined whether the link isstored in a web graph. If the link is stored in the web graph, themethod 700 proceeds to resolve operation 720. On the other hand, if thelink is not stored in the web graph, the method 700 proceeds to do notresolve operation 718.

At do not resolve operation 718, the link in the first document is notresolved. That is, if the target tenant identifier does not match thesource tenant identifier for the link, a web graph associated with thefirst document does not include the link. As such, the link may not beresolved for purposes of calculating a predicted relevance for the firstdocument (i.e., the target document). As mentioned above, differentproperties associated with a document may influence the calculation of apredicted relevancy of the document. For example, an anchor textproperty may have an impact on the predicted relevancy calculation,e.g., affecting link analyses such as page rank or click distancecomputation. In order to prevent documents of one tenant frominfluencing the predicted relevancy calculation for documents of anothertenant, links are resolved only if the source tenant for a document isthe same as the target tenant for a linked document. Ensuring that thesource tenant identifier for a link matches the target tenant identifieraccomplishes this objective. As such, the edges of the web graph betweendocuments with different tenant identifiers are removed so that onetenant can't affect another tenant's static rank. Thus, one tenant iseffectively prevented from spamming another tenant within a multi-tenanthosting environment—even if documents for both tenants are mapped to thesame search index or the same web graph. When the link is not resolved,the method 700 proceeds to decision operation 722.

At resolve operation 720, the link in the first document is resolved.That is, if the target tenant identifier matches the source tenantidentifier for the link, a web graph associated with the first documentincludes the link. As such, the link may be resolved for purposes ofcalculating a predicted relevance for the first document. Upon resolvingthe link, the method 700 proceeds to decision operation 722.

At decision operation 722, it is determined whether an additional linkreferences the first document. The additional link may be detected viaany suitable means, e.g., by a search engine or document crawler.According to embodiments, a search engine or document crawler associatedwith a multi-tenant hosting environment may detect the additional linkin any document stored on the multi-tenant hosting environment. If theadditional link has a source tenant identifier associated with the firsttenant, the source tenant identifier of the link is the first tenantidentifier (sTID₁). If the additional link has a source tenantidentifier associated with the second tenant, the source tenantidentifier of the link is the second tenant identifier (sTID₂). If anadditional link is detected, the method 700 returns to access web graphoperation 714. If the first document does not have an additional link,the method 700 may end.

As should be appreciated, the particular steps and methods describedherein are not exclusive and, as will be understood by those skilled inthe art, the particular ordering of steps as described herein is notintended to limit the method, e.g., steps may be performed in differingorder, additional steps may be performed, and disclosed steps may beexcluded without departing from the spirit of the present disclosure.

It will be clear that the systems and methods described herein are welladapted to attain the ends and advantages mentioned as well as thoseinherent therein. Those skilled in the art will recognize that themethods and systems within this specification may be implemented in manymanners and as such is not to be limited by the foregoing exemplifiedembodiments and examples. In other words, functional elements beingperformed by a single or multiple components, in various combinations ofhardware and software, and individual functions can be distributed amongsoftware applications at either the client or server level. In thisregard, any number of the features of the different embodimentsdescribed herein may be combined into one single embodiment andalternative embodiments having fewer than or more than all of thefeatures herein described are possible. In addition, any use of theterms “first” or “second” are intended to distinguish between elements,but do not imply any particular order.

While various embodiments have been described for purposes of thisdisclosure, various changes and modifications may be made which are wellwithin the scope of the present disclosure. Numerous other changes maybe made which will readily suggest themselves to those skilled in theart and which are encompassed in the spirit of the disclosure and asdefined in the appended claims.

1.-8. (canceled)
 9. A computer system, comprising: at least oneprocessor; and at least one memory, communicatively coupled to the atleast one processor and containing computer-readable instructions that,when executed by the at least one processor, perform a method ofsearching a plurality of documents associated with a tenant in amulti-tenant hosting environment, the method comprising: receiving asearch key from a tenant in a multi-tenant hosting environment, whereinthe search key is prepended to a tenant identifier associated with thetenant to form a tenant identifier-search key combination; querying asearch index for a tenant identifier-key combination that correspondswith the tenant identifier-search key combination; and returning one ormore documents mapped to the corresponding tenant identifier-keycombination, wherein the one or more documents are associated with thetenant in a multi-tenant hosting environment.
 10. The computer system ofclaim 9, further comprising: identifying a first document of the one ormore documents; retrieving an average document length for each propertyof the first document that is mapped to the corresponding tenantidentifier-key combination; retrieving a total document count associatedwith the tenant; retrieving a document frequency for the correspondingtenant identifier-key combination; and calculating a predicted relevancefor the first document.
 11. The computer system of claim 10, furthercomprising: identifying a second document of the one or more documents;retrieving an average document length for each property of the seconddocument mapped to the corresponding tenant identifier-key combination;retrieving the total document count associated with the tenant;retrieving the document frequency for the corresponding tenantidentifier-key combination; and calculating a predicted relevance forthe second document.
 12. The computer system of claim 11, furthercomprising: ranking the first document and the second document in orderof decreasing predicted relevance.
 13. The computer system of claim 10,further comprising: detecting a first link referencing the firstdocument, wherein the first link is in a second document; accessing aweb graph, wherein the web graph stores the first link only when asource tenant identifier for the second document matches a target tenantidentifier for the first document; resolving the first link only whenthe first link is stored in the web graph; and upon resolving the firstlink, calculating the predicted relevance for the first document basedat least in part upon an anchor text property in the second document.14. The computer system of claim 11, further comprising: detecting asecond link referencing the second document, wherein the second link isin a third document; accessing a web graph, wherein the web graph storesthe second link only when a source tenant identifier for the thirddocument matches a target tenant identifier for the second document;resolving the second link only when the second link is stored in the webgraph; and upon resolving the link, calculating the predicted relevancefor the second document based at least in part upon an anchor textproperty in the third document.
 15. The computer system of claim 14,further comprising: ranking the first document and the second documentin order of decreasing predicted relevance.
 16. The computer system ofclaim 15, further comprising displaying at least a subset of the one ormore documents in order of decreasing predicted relevance.
 17. Acomputer-implemented method of searching a plurality of documentsassociated with a tenant in a multi-tenant hosting environment, themethod comprising: receiving a search key from a tenant in amulti-tenant hosting environment, wherein the search key is prepended toa tenant identifier associated with the tenant to form a tenantidentifier-search key combination; querying a search index for a tenantidentifier-key combination that corresponds with the tenantidentifier-search key combination; and returning one or more documentsmapped to the corresponding tenant identifier-key combination, whereinthe one or more documents are associated with the tenant in amulti-tenant hosting environment.
 18. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 17, further comprising: identifying a first document of the one ormore documents; detecting a link in the first document, wherein the linkreferences a second document; accessing a web graph, wherein the webgraph stores the link only when a source tenant identifier matches atarget tenant identifier associated with the link; and resolving thelink only when the link is stored in the web graph.
 19. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 18, further comprising: retrievingan average document length for each property of the first documentmapped to the corresponding tenant identifier-key combination;retrieving a total document count associated with the first tenant;retrieving a document frequency for the corresponding tenantidentifier-key combination; and calculating a predicted relevance forthe first document.
 20. The computer-implemented method of claim 19,wherein upon resolving the link, the method further comprises:calculating the predicted relevance for the first document based atleast in part upon an anchor text property in the second document.
 21. Acomputer storage device storing computer-executable instructions forimplementing a method of indexing a first document and a second documentin a multi-tenant hosting environment, the method comprising: indexing afirst document in a search index, comprising: identifying a firstplurality of keys in the first document; prepending a tenant identifier(ID) to each key of the first plurality of keys to form a firstplurality of tenant ID-key combinations; storing the first plurality oftenant ID-key combinations in a search index; and mapping the firstdocument to each of the first plurality of tenant ID-key combinations inthe search index; indexing a second document in the search index,comprising: identifying a second plurality of keys in the seconddocument, wherein the second plurality of keys has one or more keys incommon with the first plurality of keys; prepending the tenant ID toeach key of the second plurality of keys to form a second plurality oftenant ID-key combinations, wherein the second plurality of tenantID-key combinations has one or more tenant ID-key combinations in commonwith the first plurality of tenant ID-key combinations; and mapping thesecond document to each of the second plurality of tenant ID-keycombinations in the search index.
 22. The computer storage device ofclaim 21, further comprising: identifying a length of the firstdocument; and storing the length of the first document.
 23. The computerstorage device of claim 22, further comprising: identifying a length ofthe second document; and storing the length of the second document. 24.The computer storage device of claim 23, further comprising: retrievingthe lengths of the first document and the second document of a pluralityof documents associated with a first tenant of the multi-tenant hostingenvironment; calculating an average document length associated with thefirst tenant; and storing the average document length associated withthe first tenant.
 25. The computer storage device of claim 21, furthercomprising: determining a document frequency for each tenant ID-keycombination; and storing the document frequency for each tenant ID-keycombination.
 26. The computer storage device of claim 21, furthercomprising: detecting a link in the first document that references thesecond document; detecting a source tenant ID associated with the firstdocument; and detecting a target tenant ID associated with the seconddocument.
 27. The computer storage device of claim 26, furthercomprising: storing the link in a web graph when the target tenant IDmatches the source tenant ID.
 28. The computer storage device of claim26, further comprising: not storing the link in a web graph when thetarget tenant ID does not match the source tenant ID.